The present invention is directed to bicycles and, more particularly, to an apparatus for providing electrical signals to bicycle components.
In recent years, bicycles have been equipped with a number of electrical devices in order to meet various user requirements. Examples include lights, display devices, cell phone chargers, and the like. Such devices have different power needs, so it is necessary to supply different predetermined levels of power to each of the devices. One possibility is to use a separate battery for each device. However, such batteries add to the bulk and weight of the various components and also create the inconvenience of having to replace the batteries periodically. One solution to this problem is to supply each of the electrical components with its required power from a dynamo. However, since each electrical component has its own power needs, it has been necessary to provide a separate dynamo on the bicycle for each electrical component. For example, where a light and a cell phone charger are installed on a bicycle, both a dynamo for the light and a dynamo for the cell phone charger also must be installed on the bicycle. Of course, as the number of electrical components increases, the number of dynamos that must be mounted to the bicycle increases accordingly. Thus, as a practical matter, the number of electrical components that a rider can use on a bicycle is limited. Also, since a dynamo uses rotation of the bicycle wheel to generate electricity, adding dynamos correspondingly increases the pedaling effort on the rider. This can create unstable operation of the bicycle as well as unstable levels of power provided to the electrical components.